Ionela Vlase holds a PhD in Sociology (2009) from University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, as well as an Habilitation title in Sociology (2022) from University of Bucharest, Romania. She is currently Associate Professor in Sociology at „Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania. Her past collaboration includes research fellowships at Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy of Science, Bucharest, as well as at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Her main research interests concern gender, sex work, migration, quality of life and social inequalities, as well as cultural heritage. She is the author of articles published in academic journals like Gender, Place and Culture, Current Sociology, European Societies, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Journal of Sex Research among others. She has been the project coordinator of an ERC-like project entitled „Migrants’ life courses: dealing with uncertain, highly destandardized biographies in Romania” (August 2016- July 2018) of 750.000 lei. As a result of this research, she has edited a volume with Bogdan Voicu (2018) Gender, Family, and Adaptation of Migrants in Europe – A Life Course Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan Since 2021 she coordinates the Research Management Office of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. She served as associate editor (2018-2022) of European Societies – the official journal of European Sociological Association (ESA). She has been guest editor of a special issue on Covid impact on societies „European Societies in the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis” hosted by European Societies, vol 23(S1).